Summit Charter

[Cruise Raider]

8 minutes ago, happy cruzer said:

Looks like Apex Feb 27 has been chartered.  Never had this happen before.  Is there compensation for this to get your to rebook with Celebrity?  Will they refund a deposit that was "nonrefundable"?

 

Thanks.

 

We've booked a few sailings on Celebrity that have been chartered.  I sure do seem to know how to pick them, right?  You will receive an offer from Celebrity to move to another sailing (they choose the list of available sailings), transfer to any other cruise of your choice with a small amount of OBC or a full refund on your deposit.  They have been very generous with us in the past for passengers that are booked on these cruises that turn into charters.  

[anna5545]

Wow! The concept of being booted off a ship because it's been chartered never even occurred to me! We recently did a lift and shift to a September 2021 cruise (on Summit) for New England/Canada. Does anyone know if there are certain itineraries that are more likely to be commandeered? I've been not-so-patiently waiting for this cruise since Jan 2019, and would hate to be delayed AGAIN!! 😞 

[FlorenceItaly]

10 minutes ago, anna5545 said:

Wow! The concept of being booted off a ship because it's been chartered never even occurred to me! We recently did a lift and shift to a September 2021 cruise (on Summit) for New England/Canada. Does anyone know if there are certain itineraries that are more likely to be commandeered? I've been not-so-patiently waiting for this cruise since Jan 2019, and would hate to be delayed AGAIN!! 😞 

We sailed this itinerary on the Summit October 2018(14 night).  It is a wonderful itinerary.  I spend too much time on this board, lol, and my observation is that you are not at risk for a full charter happening with this itinerary.

[hattack]

what is compounding this situation is that most of the full charters for 2020 (beginning in March ) have been sold out for up to 18 months  in advance and are now in the process of being rescheduled for 2021 (which are already sold out ) or 2022 and it thus becomes a rolling calendar shift (i.e. there are several 2020 full charters scheduled in the Fall that have not been cancelled yet, but due to CV 19 probably will shortly ) 

 

Cruise Lines are in a "Catch 22" in terms of fleet scheduling because full charters are most lucrative when they occur when there is excess capacity fleet wise which keeps yields higher (less discounting )..of course advance revenue projections are hampered by Cruisers holding back on bookings until there is a clearer picture of a Vaccine 

 

stay very flexible in terms of your Cruise plans and at this point don't be overly concern if a Private Charter will impact that ...Promoters who have had success in working with Cruise Lines know their repeat guests will stick with them as long as it is the same time frame every year 

 

good luck

[omeinv]

1 minute ago, anna5545 said:

Wow! The concept of being booted off a ship because it's been chartered never even occurred to me! We recently did a lift and shift to a September 2021 cruise (on Summit) for New England/Canada. Does anyone know if there are certain itineraries that are more likely to be commandeered? I've been not-so-patiently waiting for this cruise since Jan 2019, and would hate to be delayed AGAIN!! 😞 

Charters tend to be 7-nights or less, but even that's not certain.  Beyond that, there's little you could use that would be predicative of which cruises are subject to being chartered.  As posters have noted above certain ships are chartered more frequently, but it's because of the overall financials, not the ship involved.  For example, when Summit was running 7-night trips out of San Juan, those trips were relatively less expensive, so charters were consequently more desirable to the cruise line.  However, Atlantis has chartered both Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, and the Apex early in 2021, so clearly you can't go by the age of the ship, or the price of regular sailings. 

 

As others have noted, charters generally occur about 1 year in advance of sailing, and there are strong clues a charter is in the works before it's announced:  Bookings not being allowed (perhaps all categories showing "sold out"), while the sailing still shows up on the website; or the sailing completely disappearing as if the ship was sold out. 

 

If you're booked on a sailing that seems to be in the process of being chartered, it's always best to wait for the announcement to be made, as there will be some compensation above cancellation and refund offered.  Use the time in limbo to decide what options would work for you as far as other cruises, so when the announcement is made you know immediately what choices you'd exercise.  While those affected are understandably upset, the charters are almost always announced prior to a date a person could book airfare or hotel arrangements, so the inconvenience is limited. 

 

The people that seem to have the hardest time getting good resolutions are those who have one cruise of a back-to-back (or longer) series cancelled by a charter. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[Cruise a holic]

30 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

We sailed this itinerary on the Summit October 2018(14 night).  It is a wonderful itinerary.  I spend too much time on this board, lol, and my observation is that you are not at risk for a full charter happening with this itinerary.

Happened to us twice.  Once on the summit for a august sailing, and once on an edge sailing.  No compensation from Celebrity.  Was really a problem, especially regarding the edge cruise.  Celebrity would only hold the price we paid for the week before and after. Since we booked the edge as soon as we were allowed to book.  Because my huband couldn’t sail the week before nor after, the rebooking cost over 30% more.  That really disappointed us as we really felt celebrity would be fair

[FlorenceItaly]

2 minutes ago, Cruise a holic said:

Happened to us twice.  Once on the summit for a august sailing, and once on an edge sailing.  No compensation from Celebrity.  Was really a problem, especially regarding the edge cruise.  Celebrity would only hold the price we paid for the week before and after. Since we booked the edge as soon as we were allowed to book.  Because my huband couldn’t sail the week before nor after, the rebooking cost over 30% more.  That really disappointed us as we really felt celebrity would be fair

My post is in reference to Anna's New England/Canada itinerary only.  I have also been affected by a Charter on the Infinity for next year.

[hattack]

as  part of the Charter negotiations with the Cruise lines there is a line item regarding the cost for the cruise lines to rebook guests , which is a nice way to encourage the Promoter to lock in the charter as early as possible (fewer guests to rebook ) ..so the more guests needing rebooking the greater the incentive and the more it cost the promoter 

 

Charters are extremely lucrative for Cruise Lines so I suspect we will see an increase in them while the Cruise Industry recovers 

[happy cruzer]

So the Apex cruise Feb 27, is not officially chartered yet per my TA.  Anyone have different information?  Celebrity seems to be waiting longer to announce it?

[hcat]

Surprised to hear of an APEX charter so early in its schedule..No sailings have actually taken place yet , Must be a very large group.

[Cruise a holic]

2 minutes ago, hcat said:

Surprised to hear of an APEX charter so early in its schedule..No sailings have actually taken place yet , Must be a very large group.

Happened to us on the edge, when it was only out officially 2 1/2 months.   We booked very early then were notified a few months before our scheduled cruise that it was chartered

[omeinv]

2 hours ago, hcat said:

Surprised to hear of an APEX charter so early in its schedule..No sailings have actually taken place yet , Must be a very large group.

Yeah, Atlantis is probably the largest single charterer of ships.  The fact they are doing a full-ship charter of the Allure of the Seas a couple weeks before the full-ship charter of the Apex gives you an idea of just how large they are. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[hattack]

another indicator of a future potential charter...if there is a large group  (33% - 49% capacity )  on a regular sailing (and there is a Poster that faithfully keeps up with this type of data  ) year after year, that group could become a future charter candidate 

 

also older & smaller vessels with fewer bells and whistles , with fewer but larger public rooms are great candidates especially for music charters ..the focus is on the music, not the vessel and cheaper for the promoter to charter 

 

would not be surprise to see a Post CV 19 1st Responder Full Charter to thank those incredible medical personnel